The newly released 13th Annual B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report highlights that B2B brands are increasingly prioritizing content marketing, but the resources to support this newly prominent role aren't always available.
Again produced by MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute, and sponsored by ON24, the annual report offers insights into B2B content marketing benchmarks, budgets, and trends.
Some 71% of B2B content marketers say content marketing has become more important to their organization over the last year.
Although content marketing has become more important, B2B marketers say the resources they need haven't fully materialized. When asked: "If you could change one thing about content marketing in your organization, what would that be?", respondents say they are fighting for a wide range of changes, including a more strategic approach, more budget and staff, more access to subject matter experts, better technology, better measurement tools, and greater alignment between Marketing and Sales.
Below are selected charts displaying findings from the various chapters of the current year's B2B report.
Staffing & Opinions
Some 47% percent of B2B marketers say they expect their organization to hire or contract for content producers in 2023 (e.g., writers, designers, videographers).
Content Creation & Distribution
B2B marketers who differentiate their content say they do so primarily by producing better quality content, covering topics/stories their competitors don’t, and actively promoting their content.
Content Management & Operations
Only 28% of B2B marketers say they have the right technology in place to manage content across their organization. Some 31% of respondents they have the technology but aren’t using it to potential and 30% say they have not acquired the right technology
Metrics & Goals
B2B marketers say the metrics they rely on most to evaluate content performance are conversions, lead quality, and website engagement.
Budgets & Spending
Half of B2B marketers expect their content marketing budget to increase in 2023 and 38% expect their content marketing budget to stay the same.
Challenges
B2B marketers say their biggest content marketing challenges are creating content that appeals to different stages of the buyer’s journey and aligning content efforts across Sales and Marketing.
Download the full B2B Content Marketing Report.
About the report: The online survey from which the results of this report were generated was emailed to a sample of marketers using lists from CMI and MarketingProfs. A total of 1,104 recipients from around the globe — representing a range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes — replied to the survey during July 2022. This report presents the findings from 925 respondents who work for B2B or B2B-B2C hybrid companies and who are involved in content marketing.
